2011 Frankfurt: Mercedes-Benz F 125! Concept Looks Far into Future

At the Frankfurt Auto Show this week, Mercedes-Benz is using the home court to celebrate 125 years since the company’s founder inventing the automobile. But rather than looking back in the past at the company’s achievements, it’s celebrating by looking at what the S-Class of 2025 may look like.

The result of that forward thinking is the F 125! concept you see above. And right away, probably the most startling and obvious part of the new car is its exterior styling. The folks at Mercedes-Benz seem to like the gullwing theme, as the new F 125! features the same style apertures as the company’s flagship SLS AMG. Under all the silver paint is a body made out of a mix of carbon fiber, plastic, and aluminum, making the car lightweight for the hydrogen-powered engine to push around.

Carbon fiber is also used to hold the liquid hydrogen that will feed the car’s power plant, and not only will it hold the hydrogen at 700 bar, it will also be strong enough to be a structural part of the car’s body, making for an extremely rigid floor, and very shallow fuel tank. That hydrogen will power four electric motors housed near each of the wheels, providing a peak output of 313 horsepower, but keeping a constant 231 horsepower when cruising along.

Iside, the F 125! features “@yourCOMAND,” the future of Mercedes-Benz infotainment systems. The main difference is the new @yourCOMAND system will be constantly connected to the internet, and provide 3D displays with high resolution graphics, all responding to gestures made by the passengers, as well as by voice commands.

Obviously we’ll have to wait awhile to see if the 2025 S-Class lives up to this vision, but we certainly hope a lot of the technology from the F 125! makes its way into some of the offerings M-B will have for us in the near future.